Addresses

Today's post looks at some odd place names making a person wonder how they work as addresses. First up is community in Tennessee called, Nameless. There are two stories about how Nameless was named, one is that when they sent in the application for a post office they left the name space blank so the Post Office Department stamped it as Nameless. The other story is that the residents couldn't agree on a name and one fellow said, "this is a nameless place if I've ever seen one, so leave it be." And they did. The next is a place in Wales with a 58 character name meaning, "St. Mary's Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel Near to the Rapid Whirlpool of Llantysilio of the Red Cave" imagine trying to fit that on an envelope! Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Toy Vote

It's time to vote for the finalists in this years Toy Hall of Fame inductees, you can vote once a day for 1 toy between September 18-25. This years entries include: Apples to Apples, Balloons, Choose Your Own Adventure Books, Hess Toy Trucks, My Little Pony, Phase 10, Pokemon Trading Card Game, Remote Control Vehicles, Sequence, Stick Horse, Trampoline, and Transformers. To vote go to mueseumofplay.org and select National Toy Hall of Fame and scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see a vote now tab. 

  

Is Golden Good?

 Scientists in Spain have engineered a golden lettuce with 30 times the nutrients of regular lettuce. They increased the levels of beta-carotene which is important for several functions in the body and is usually found in carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potato all of which are commonly orange in color, beta-carotene is also what makes the lettuce golden. Nutritious or not genetically enhanced foods are still too new to be thoroughly trustworthy, kind of like putting your life in the hands of AI. 

Cookie Butt

 Most people have heard of trapdoor spiders though unless you live in the southeastern U.S. you've probably never seen one. Not only do they have a unique way of trapping their prey by springing out of their burrows when they feel the vibrations they also have what appears to be an Oreo cookie on their butts. The moral of the story is if you're walking around the southeastern part of the country don't bend over to pick up any Oreos! 

The Annual Igs

 Time for the Ig Nobel Prizes and as usual they don't disappoint. The physics prize went to Jimmy Liao who compared the swimming abilities of dead and live trout finding that dead fish flap their tails to the beat of the current and other things live fish do, bringing him to the conclusion that the water swims the fish! Next up in the chemistry category was seeing how well tubifex worms did swimming through a maze based on their alcohol consumption. Okay...anyone want to tell me how one gets a worm drunk? and then try to get them to negotiate a maze?

Pirate Primer

Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming up this week on the 19th so today's post offers the meaning to some pirate jargon. Though not a real word no pirate should be without Argh in their vocabulary, the meaning is unclear though it was probably first uttered in "Treasure Island" and "Blackbeard the Pirate" in the 1950s. "Shiver Me Timbers" is another example of a phrase never uttered by a real pirate but was used seven times in the book "Treasure Island" to covey surprise, anger or annoyance. So there's a start for all you Scallywags looking to walk the plank on the 19th! 

Honesty the Best Policy?

 When it comes to marketing strategy honesty doesn't work. In 2012 J.C. Penney admitted they used fake prices to attract customers. If they wanted to sell a shirt for $10 they marked it as $20 then marked it down to 50% off on sale. They changed to "everyday low prices" and customers complained until they brought back the phony sale prices. Another example of customers rebelling against change came in April 1985 when Coke launched New Coke and ended up pulling it from the shelves by July of the same year when consumers demanded they return to Coke Classic. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

Feeling Lucky?

 Since it's Friday the 13th it must be time for some facts about that date. The world's economy loses about $900 million every Friday the 13th because of people who are afraid to work or travel. On Friday the 13th in 1979 Bob Renphrey decided to stay in bed on Fridays that fell on the 13th after several previous unlucky accidents like walking through a plate glass door, getting fired, putting his wife in the hospital after hitting her with a stick meant for the dog (was he going to hit the dog? or was he throwing it for the dog?), plus his wife also fell down a flight of stairs. Makes a person wonder if he was abusing both the wife and dog and if so it wasn't bad luck but rather karma coming to call. 

No Soup

 Following the trend of several chain establishments Campbell's Soup is dropping the soup from their official name. On one hand it's not like customers won't recognize the product since it has been around for 155 years, but on the other hand why bother? The expense of the change doesn't seem worthwhile though they feel that by dropping the word soup the change will better represent the breadth of their portfolio, though none of the recently purchased brands bear the Campbell name in any way a person would notice, they also own Prego sauces, Goldfish crackers and Sovos brands. Does this make anyone else think of the "Soup Nazi" of Seinfeld fame? 

Innsights

 Hotel.com launched their annual report on odd things left behind by guests at the over 400 hotels worldwide. Let's start with the most expensive items left: a Rolex, a Birkin bag and a $6 million watch. Moving right along next we have pets: a chick and a pet lizard. Under "you think they would notice" we have: two full leg casts and 10% of the guests forget their dentures. We will wrap up with why were these items in a hotel room: a rice cooker, a car tire, a blender and construction pipes. Okay, I can kind of see why a blender was in the room, but a car tire and construction pipes??

Animal Sounds

 Did anyone know that animals make different sounds in different countries? For instance in English speaking countries pigs go, oink oink but in Albanian they say, hunk- hunk, in Basque it's kurrin-kurrin, in Norwegian it's noff noff. Same deal with dogs, in English the sound a dog makes is a bark, where in Spanish it's guau guau, in Mandarin it's wang wang, yet in Russia a big dog says, gav gav and a little dog says, tyaf tyaf. It makes a person wonder if the Fisher Prices Farmer Says toy comes in different languages. 

Don't Ask

 People are finally figuring out that if you ask for an online vote to name public properties they might not get an everyday type name. In 2011 an Indiana town asked people to name the new government center, the people opted for Harry Baals, the name of a mayor from 1930. In 2015 the B.C. Ferry Service asked internet users to name its newest ships, the entries included: Spirit of the Wallet Sucker, The Floating Crapsickle, Royal Docksitter, The Coastal Corruption, HMS Cantafford, and Queen of the Damned. Despite these results Michigan recently launched a contest for a new "I voted" sticker design, 57,000 people voted for the sticker designed by a 12 year old showing a howling werewolf ripping his shirt off, but hey, they asked! 

That's Funny

 Even comic strip characters have interesting backstories, for instance Popeye was first created in 1919 though his love interest, Olive Oyl, was introduced 10 years before him. Popeye was based on a real person, a retired eccentric sailor the strip's creator once knew. The Smurfs were created in Belgium in 1958 and might have stayed there if they hadn't caught the eye of Hannah-Barbera, though it wasn't produced in the US until 1981. 

Beware the Square

 Have you ever wondered why windows on airplanes are round when most other windows are square or rectangular? Before airlines had larger and faster jets the windows were square but after examining the wreckage of two planes in the early 1950s it was discovered that the the squared off corners of the windows collected 70% of the stress of the pressurized cabin causing them to fracture. Circular windows disperse the stress more evenly, plus there are now 3 panes per window leaving a margin for failure. 

Fruit Fly Workout

 Researchers once again turned to fruit flies for a study on how their nervous systems allow them to adapt to unexpected changes in their environment and how they adjust their movements accordingly. Since fruit flies have a fully mapped nervous system they were the chosen subjects for the study. They used a tiny linear treadmill to record how the flies responded to changes in speed and unexpected challenges. Seriously? Fruit flies can think enough to adapt to unexpected challenges? Oh well, it's always the fruit flies. 

In the Dark

 Idioms are locational so they vary widely from country to country, today we will look at a few to illustrate the differences. "In the dark" means being unaware of situations though the German rendition of the idiom is, "to have tomatoes on one's eyes". English speakers know that "having the blues" means being sad or down, but in French the saying is, "having the cockroach". "Rekindling an old flame" means getting back together with a previous romantic interest, in Italian there are two phrases for this idiom, "reheated cabbage" and "reheated soup". 

Pineapple Assist

Speaking of goofy ways to meet other singles a Tik Tok craze in Spain is suggesting singles go to a Mercadona supermarket between the hours of 7 pm and 8 pm and put a pineapple upside down in their cart then according to lore they are to proceed to the wine aisle and look for other singles with upside down pineapples. When they spot someone to their liking they're instructed to bump their cart into the other cart and if they bump your cart back it means they want to talk. Same kind of deal is going on at another store but it's watermelons instead of pineapples. Whatever happened to the old tried and true ways of meeting people? This just seems kind of desperate. 

Top Five

 The criteria for this list of the top 5 cereals isn't entirely clear though crunch and the amount of sugar/flavoring left in the milk seem to be considered but at no time is the actual nutritional value ranked as an important factor in the rating. Without further ado I present the top 5 cereals. The number 1 position goes to Cinnamon Toast Crunch, #2 Honey Nut Cheerios #3 Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries #4 Oreo O's #5 Fruit Loops. Now for the bonus round I'll include the lowest ranked out of the 50 top cereals, drum roll please... #50 Frosted Mini Wheats!

Nostradamus Plus

Nostradamus wasn't exactly the Lone Ranger when it came to making predictions about the future. Arthur C. Clarke was mainly known for his science fiction stories though he also predicted the use of artificial satellites for communication. In an 1909 interview with Nikola Tesla he described the internet almost perfectly. Both Smartwatches and cell phones came from a 1940s comic strip, Dick Tracy who routinely communicated through his wristwatch, proving that even ideas that seem far fetched at the time can become reality.